Comparison of Long-Term Effect of Thymoglobulin Treatment in Patients With a High Risk of Delayed Graft Function

Background. T-lymphocyte depletion is a strategy to reverse the impact of ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) in progression to chronic allograft dysfunction, especially among patients at high risk for delayed graft function (DGF). Methods. The present work assessed the effect of thymoglobulin among a population with a high incidence of DGF. We analyzed 209 transplanted patients: 97 in the thymoglobulin and 112 in the control group. Results. The main complication was DGF (59.3%), with a similar incidence in both groups (63.9% vs 55.3%; P = .36). Acute rejection episodes (ARE) were decreased with thymoglobulin (8.2% vs 28.5%; P < .001), but cytomegalovirus viremia was 3.4-fold more frequent (58.3% vs 17.1%; P < .001). One-year graft function was significantly better in the thymoglobulin group (59.2 +/- 17.2 vs 51.8 +/- 15.3 mL/min; P = .004), even when censored by ARE (59.7 +/- 17.5 vs 53.3 +/- 14.4; P = .023). The same difference was observed at the 2-year follow-up (P = .024), even when censored for ARE (P = .045). A multivariate analysis showed thymoglobulin to be a factor strongly associated with protection of graft function (P = .039). Conclusion. Despite not reducing the incidence of DGF, thymoglobulin induction significantly reduced the incidence of ARE and showed a long-term profile of protection of renal graft function, independent of the reduction in ARE.